City for Conquest (1940)

Already another mid-20th-century drama with an alliterative title in the "X for Y" format, based on a book, with Anthony Quinn in a supporting role. But that's about where the similarity ends.

Truck driver Danny (James Cagney), from a New York slum, resumes boxing to pay for the musical education of his ambitious brother, Eddie (Arthur Kennedy in his debut). He does a great job of it, but sometimes he has trouble keeping his emotions in check, especially when girlfriend Peggy (Ann Sheridan) has less time for him while advancing her dance career under wannabe boyfriend Murray (Quinn). And when people are betting good money on fights, you can bet that criminal elements will come into play....

The Netflix description mentions an event at the start of the third act. Ordinarily, I'd call that a spoiler, but it is awfully important to the tenor of the overall story. Let's just say it might have inspired Million Dollar Baby, albeit with less tragedy.

While the movie runs only 104 minutes, it feels a bit longer. Part of that comes from the focus sometimes seeming needlessly broad for the story. I suspect that the book had a lot more to tell.

For example, the first several minutes introduce a sort of Greek chorus in the form of a homeless man (Frank Craven) who knows a lot about people and will gladly prove it. He keeps saying, "I've got clothes on my back," as if that explains his savvy. Anyway, the next several minutes introduce a bunch of characters in childhood, whom the still-homeless man will continue to observe in adulthood. In fact, none of them undergoes a major change: Their preteen or early teen desires persevere. OK, Danny has a more jaded view of boxing and is reluctant to make it his occupation, but that's it. The best I can say about this introduction is that it makes us care a little more about their friendships, especially the once-precocious romance between Danny and Peggy.

Eddie's music is another occasional theme. I get that it's the reason for Danny's return to the sport, but it comes up so rarely that I'd almost call it a distraction. What he composes and plays isn't bad for the time; it just has the misfortune of competing with quite a few better-known numbers sampled in the picture, such as "42nd Street."

I think Peggy gets a raw deal herein. I don't blame her for doing what it takes to make her dream job come true, tho she really should have stopped working with Murray after he ignored her repetition of "Let me go!" (What happened was off screen; I don't think it was rape, or she wouldn't be smiling the next time we saw her.) When disaster befalls Danny, a mutual acquaintance blames her for not accepting his marriage proposal immediately. She internalizes the guilt, and I take it that the audience is supposed to agree. But I get the impression that the disaster could easily have happened anyway. And if she was starting to stray emotionally toward Murray, it was partly Danny's fault for giving her an unusual amount of leeway.

That said, the blamer is hardly the worst offender. Good manners are in short supply in this depiction of New York. We expect a guy like Danny to be rough around the edges, but every guy he throws a punch at outside the ring basically asks for it. Furthermore, the police never appear to catch real troublemakers, but they do bother to order people not to do harmless things like public kissing.

Perhaps the best thing about this movie is (gasp!) the boxing. Cagney did have significant prior experience in that regard, and the cinematography of his final match comes across well. In fact, it's about the only scene that might not change substantially in a modern remake.

I'm starting to get a feel for director Anatole Litvak. He's done a few great dramas. This one's merely good. I'll keep an eye out for more of his work.